Portable & Affordable Workbench for Small Spaces

Today I'm going to build a portable workbench that could be clamped anywhere in your shop or your house if you don't have a shop. This bench is loaded with convenient ways to clamp down your workpieces using built-in features and optional accessories. It can handle clamping pieces of all different shapes and sizes and it can be easily stored away when not in use, so it's great if you have a small space or even no shop at all. Best part, you only need one 2x10 to build it, so let's get into it. I cut the 2x10 into two pieces that are slightly longer than 36 inches and prepared them to be laminated together. I know, I know, most people who want a portable bench probably don't have a planer. You can also use a hand plane, electric hand planer, or a belt sander to flatten the surfaces, but I have a planer so I used it. Once I got the cup out of the boards, I glued them together to make one thicker board that will make up the bench and I could rip off the sides to make them nice and smooth and square. At the miter saw, I squared off the ends to get the bench to its final length of 36 inches and one thing to note here in this glue up is the grain direction on these boards. You can see that the grain on the two boards are running in the opposite direction. That's what you want to keep this bench from warping in the future. Alright, time for some fun stuff. Marking and measuring. The whole top will have dog holes spaced 4 inches apart and 2 inches from the edges. The holes being 4 inches apart will work best for the adjustable inline dog clamps that I plan on using for this bench. To aid in drilling all 16 dog holes in the top, I'll make a jig. I took 3 pieces of scrap plywood and laminated only 2 of them to create the base of the jig. I used CA glue and brads to hold them together. It's good enough for a jig like this. Then I marked the center of that base and also marked 2 inches from the edge since I want my dog holes to be 2 inches from the edge of the bench. I'll need to drill a super straight hole in this base which could be done by eye using squares or a right angled jig set up but I have a drill press so I'm going to use that. The dog holes are 3 quarter inch holes but the hole that I'm drilling out here is a 1 inch hole. This is so that I can fit a metal bushing in there. This will protect the jig as I'm drilling to make straighter holes. This isn't a necessary step at all. I just thought that this was a cool idea. And if you have a drill press, you can certainly just go ahead and drill all the holes on your drill press but I'm going to need this jig later on for the sides as well. You'll see in a bit. I used a vise to insert the bushing which actually took quite a bit of effort. Then I could finish up the rest of the jig by bringing down the center line I drew earlier and by gluing the fence on. Once again, I used CA glue on brads to do this and that's all there is to it. Time to drill some holes. To use it, I lined up the center line on the jig that I brought down to the side with the line I marked on the bench, clamped it in place and used a 3 quarter inch bit to drill out the hole. Unclamp it, line up, repeat the process 15 more times. Now, I did end up having an issue with the jig that I made. The bushing I used was shorter than the two pieces of plywood that I glued together for the base of the jig. So there was a void in the one inch hole that was filling up with wood chips from the drill and it was causing the bit to bind because those chips couldn't be ejected out the top. If you're going to make this jig, make sure that the bushing is flush on the inside bottom of the jig to prevent that from happening. My bad. Anyway, at least the straight holes were started for me and I could use them as a reference to drill through the rest of the bench. The bit that I'm using is called an overdrive bit and it was the cleanest, quickest hole I have ever drilled on any material. I did some fun tests on Instagram and I was blown away. I'll definitely add a link to this bit down below. The side of the bench will also get some 3 quarter inch holes drilled into it. For more clamping options, I'll use the same drill guide I used for the top, but I'll need to add some thickness to the fence to make up for the distance the hole will be from the edge of the bench. Same deal as before. Line up the center line on the jig with the lines drawn on the bench, clamp down, drill to start the holes, then using tape as a guide, I drilled all the way to final depth. Moving on to the twin screw vise. You might recognize this hardware from my Moxon vise build. This is going to be very similar, except this time the threaded rods are going to be embedded into the bench. I want to make sure that none of the holes collide with each other, so I make sure to mark out the location for this rod so that it will be in between the dog holes that I already drilled out. Then I marked another hole about 16 inches away from that for the twin screw and a third hole that will be for added support when using longer pieces in the vise. You know the deal by now. Line up, clamp, drill, repeat. The third hole I marked out on the right only needs to be about 2 inches deep like the holes on the opposite side. So I drilled that out using tape as my guide. The first two holes on the vise, however, need to be about 8 inches long to fit the threaded rods. You might think that this is impossible with a bit that's only 6 inches long, but I have a plan. First I drill as deep as the bit can go. Then I attach the overdrive bit I was using to a drill bit extender so I can drill to about 8 inches deep using tape as a guide again. This makes sure that I won't drill through the back side. That would be really bad. The threaded rods probably won't fit right away. It's just a little bit too tight, but all you have to do is remount the holes a bit by moving the bit side to side. Then it's a perfect fit. These threaded rods will be held in place with square nuts. I bring the center line from drilling the hole for the rod down to the bottom so that I can mark out the mortise for the square nut. The goal is to have about a 16th of play from side to side, but no movement or play front to back. So I used calipers to get the exact thickness of the nuts and just straight up use those calipers to mark off that measurement on the bench. I'm choosing to go through the trouble of marking and cutting out these mortises because I thought it was good practice for me. But if you want to see a simpler way to do this with just a drill bit, Jay Bates built a very similar bench in collaboration with Mike Taylor from Tay Tools as well. Like the Moxon vise and loose tenon jig, Mike is the brain behind this design and I'm just showing you guys how it's all put together. So to finish up the mortise, all I need to do is focus on the top portion and make that square. Then I can use a router with a pattern bit to bring the mortise to final depth. I could have sat there and practiced with my chisels more, but I just didn't have that kind of time. I just kept lowering the bit and testing to see if the rod would engage with the nut. Boom. My new favorite way to clean the bottom of a mortise. Cool. Moving on to the jaw for the vise. This process will be very similar to the jaw on the Moxon vise that I built. I love how the oval holes in that vise allow for clamping of angled pieces. I'll show an example of that at the end, but here's how to drill them out. After marking out the center holes that match the holes drilled on the side of the bench, mark out a quarter inch from either side of the center line and drill them out all the way through using a three quarter inch Forstner bit. Now, all you have to do is clear up those pointy parts that were between the two holes and voila, you have an oval hole that the threaded rod can easily move side to side in. Here's another part that's different from the Moxon vise. The handles on this one are going to be permanently attached to the rods. To do this, clean the threaded rods with lacquer thinner or alcohol and wait for that to dry off and then use some red thread locker to permanently attach the handles to the threaded rods. It takes about 24 hours for this to fully cure, so maybe do this step earlier on in the process. Both ends of this bench will have a built-in plane stop and the process to make these could not be simpler. Using a drilling guide, I drilled two holes evenly spaced apart into the ends of the bench. Then I cut some scraps slightly shorter than the width of the bench and used a center line on that same drilling guide to drill matching holes in it. This next step could be done multiple ways. Bandsaw, handsaw, jigsaw. I chose to use the table saw with a stop block on my crosscut sled. I raised the blade to the height of the hole that was drilled out and used the stop block to make the outside cuts on all the parts. Then I adjusted the stop block to cut the inside of all the parts. This creates slots that are slightly wider than the quarter inch bolts I'm going to install them onto. But before I can do that, while I'm already at the table saw, there's one final thing to make. The raised feet that will allow you to clamp this to any surface. I took what was left over from the 2x10, ripped it into two strips, then used a crosscut sled to cut those strips into two parts. One about five inches long and one about nine inches long. I made center marks on the sides of those pieces so I can line them up centered with each other during the glue up. I used wood glue for lasting strength and CA glue so that they're stuck together quicker so that I can work on them quicker. If you have more time to spare, you don't need CA glue for this part. After they set up to dry for a bit, I drilled some large holes on the center lines and this is going to be for the clamps. These feet are going to be attached with lag bolts from the underside, so I used a Forstner bit to drill recessed holes deep enough that the head of those bolts will not protrude out the bottom. Then using the point left over from the Forstner bit, I could drill all the way through the rest of the feet so the lag bolt can go all the way through. All the hard work and building is done, now it's just time for the final touches. This bench will be used and touched a lot, so I wanted to make sure that it's as smooth and comfortable as possible. I knocked off the sharp edges of the feet with a block plane, which is quick, fun, and satisfying to do. I also removed any sharp corners from all the fences. It's really easy to just set up a table saw blade to 30 degrees and use a stop block on a miter gauge to knock off the corners. I didn't use my crosscut sled for this because the bevel side of my crosscut sled is only set to 45 degrees and I didn't want to ruin the whole zero clearance situation. And this miter gauge is great and perfect for this operation. Next up, the dog holes get a slight chamfer around the edges, which is easily done with a chamfer bit in a trim router. Real quick, I just want to give a shout out to the MVP of this build, my new insulated overalls from Ariatwork. It was about 15 degrees outside when I was building this, which is no fun when working in an uninsulated garage. I knew I already loved the Rebar jacket that I've been wearing for a couple of years, so I decided to pick up the Rebar DuraCanvas Stretch Insulated Bib, and it's awesome. It's super warm without being too bulky, and the material isn't stiff like other brands I've tried in the past, so I'm able to move around really easily. The shoulder straps are elastic, so if you bend down to pick up that drill bit that you dropped, everything stretches with you. They're so good. Lately, I've been raving about the pocket situation on all my Ariatwork gear, and these do not disappoint in the pocket department. There are more pockets that I know what to do with, and there are even hidden pockets within pockets. This might seem odd to you guys that I'm so excited about pockets, but the pockets on women's clothing are usually not big enough to hold anything or just non-existent, so I appreciate that the designers behind all the Ariatwork gear really know what their customers want, and that's pockets. So check out the link below to see what Ariatwork has to offer, and there will be a link where you can get 10% off your first order as well. All right, moving on to cleaning up the jaw on the vise. I put the nuts in place through the bottom mortises, then attach the jaw using the threaded rod that has the handle glued on it. I also make sure to put a large washer in between the handle and the jaw. When I ripped this jaw piece, it was really only an approximate width, so after closing the jaw all the way, I could take a hand plane to it and make sure that it's really flush with the top of the bench. This takes no time at all and it's super fun, and in case anyone's curious, I keep all of my shavings for fire starters. Now for the plane stops. I mentioned before they will slide over quarter inch bolts. I'm going to use these hanger bolts. One end has a tapered lag screw which can go into the wood, and the other end has machined screw threads. Knobs will eventually go on the machined screw thread portion, but for now I will use nuts to screw it into place. Use pliers or a wrench to lock the two nuts together. This locks the top nut in place and then you can rotate it into the wood. I repeated that three more times so each end has two bolts. Then I put the plane stop in place and locked it down with washers and knobs. Just like with the vise jaw, I used a hand plane to make sure the top of the stops were flush with the top of the bench. On the Moxon vise build, I mentioned that I would line the jaw with something called crubber and I never did, but I will on this one. This is a material that's a mix of cork and rubber, and it's great for lining the inside of the jaw for added gripping strength. It has an adhesive backing already on it so it's super easy to apply. Then I used an exacto knife to roughly cut out the openings for the threaded rods, which are then easily cleaned up with a flush trim bit and a router. The jaw can now be put in place using the threaded rods through the square nuts that are in the bottom. And there's one more thing to do before it's done and that is add the feet. On the side where the twin screw vise is, the placement is pretty important. You want to make sure that the feet or the clamps that you're going to put on the feet won't ever get in the way of something that you put in the vise. So using a scrap piece of wood in the vise opening, I marked hole locations for the feet by just putting the lag screw that I'm going to use in the already drilled out hole and tapping it with a mallet. After all of this work, you definitely want to make sure that you're not going to drill through the top of your bench. So I used tape as a drilling guide again to drill to the correct depth. Then the feet can be installed using washers and the lag bolts. I repeated the same thing on the other raised foot, but this time the location isn't as important. I just placed it so it was in between the dog holes and it wouldn't get in the way of anything that I need to put through the holes, like hold vests. And it's done. But I was so busy building this all day and I didn't have any time to think about dinner for the family. Good thing I can get high quality, wholesome meal kits delivered right to my door with Green Chef. Green Chef is a CCOF certified organic company that makes eating well, easy and affordable with dinner options that work around your lifestyle. These meal kits have been a game changer in my house. From the second I opened the box, the kids swore me and there's a heated debate on which meal to try first. The pictures on the recipe cards actually make my kids want to try vegetables that they've never tried before. With Green Chef, there are options for every lifestyle, including keto and paleo, vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, fast and fit and Mediterranean. So if you want to dip your toes into a healthier lifestyle, there's something for everyone. You can even switch up your meal plan whenever you're ready to try a new way to eat. You've also seen me make meals from HelloFresh before and I like to switch between both since Green Chef is owned by HelloFresh. It's easy to switch between the brands when our tastes change or when we want to just eat a little differently. I love the recipes. They're always so quick and easy with step-by-step instructions, chef tips and photos to guide you along. So even if you're not a seasoned chef, you can serve up super flavorful meals that are made up of high quality, clean ingredients. The best part, the recipes include pre-made measured sauces, dressings and spices. So these meals are packed with a ton of flavor in less time. No whipping out measuring cups or extra sauce pans, which also makes for an easier cleanup. As you can see, this dish was a huge hit in my house. So if you want to try it for yourself, go to greenchef.us slash 3x3custom130 and use the code 3x3custom130 to get $100 off, including free shipping on your first box. My little guy was actually picking out the kale because he loved it so much. I couldn't believe it. So once again, that's greenchef.us slash 3x3custom130 and use the code 3x3custom130 to get $100 off, including free shipping on your first box. All right, now that dinner is taken care of, let me show you everything this bench can do. You can place it on some sawhorses and use the holes in the raised feet to clamp it in place. This is great on job sites or if you just don't have a ton of space to work in. You can also clamp it to any surface that you want. You can clamp it to your kitchen counter, dining room table, but just make sure to ask your significant other if this is okay first. I don't want any angry emails from spouses. You can forget about clamping it to a surface altogether and just work right on your playroom floor. Again, you may want to ask permission from your toddler before you start planing any Thomas tracks. In all seriousness, this is how I'm going to be using the bench. I'm going to clamp it directly to the top of my existing bench by just clamping on the feet. These adjustable plane stops are perfect when planing any material. There's no clamps required. Just raise the plane stop so that it's lower than the material that you want to plane and have at it. You may feel like you need extra support on the sides at times and you can just add some bench dogs in the dog holes and use them for more support. But for the most part, it probably won't be necessary. If you do want to clamp something securely to the stops, you can use these inline adjustable dog clamps. These are great for securing smaller pieces for fine detail work but can also be used to clamp any sort of shape. Oddly shaped items are usually really hard to clamp down. So just add a couple of dogs and some holes and use the inline clamp to secure it in place. I see so many possibilities with this situation here. And as for clamping regular pieces, you can do the same with the dogs and inline clamps. But there are other ways to clamp it too, like with these vertical dog hole screw clamps. These are meant to fit into the dog holes. Then you just screw the handles to tighten it down. My favorite way to clamp with dog holes though is to use a holdfast. You just stick them in the holes and use a mallet on top to lock them in place. I always just love how quick and simple these are and they really keep the pieces secure. All you need to do is tap on the back of them to loosen them up again. I really do love using these holdfasts. Onto the twin screw vise. This is great for vertically clamping boards that are under 16 inches wide. This is perfect for doing joinery on the ends of pieces. And like I mentioned before regarding the oval holes, you can use this vise to easily clamp pieces that are tapered. This is great when working on something like tapered table legs or something like that. Using the 10 inch long threaded rods, the capacity for clamping is about six inches with a jaw that's an inch and a half thick. That's pretty great and would probably come really in handy when making boxes. Now, what if you want to clamp something that's longer than 16 inches? You have options. If it's a long skinny piece, you can use the extra dog hole drilled in the vise side. Just stick a dog in there and you have extra support when clamping longer pieces. But what if you have longer pieces that are too wide to comfortably clamp in the vise? That's what all the holes on the opposite side are for. You can use the vertical dog hole screw clamps and this keeps the piece really secure as you do things like plane the edges. So what do you guys think about this bench? As soon as Mike reached out to me with this idea, I knew that I had to build it because I get so many requests from viewers asking how they could get started with woodworking without having the shop space. And I think that this bench really fits the bill on that one. It could be made with really inexpensive materials and you don't need high-end machinery to make it. You don't need a planer or a drill press or a table saw to make this. All the cuts on this can be done with just using hand tools if you have the time and patience. You will need a drill, however, but I'm assuming that you have a drill. As far as finishing goes, I'm choosing not to put finish on mine just to see how it holds up, but you can certainly add finish to it. But just be aware, if you do, the finish might build up in the dog holes and it will prevent the bench dogs or the other clamps to fit in there well. So you'll just need to ream out the holes a bit so those fit better. Also, I chose to use a 2x10 to make this just to show you guys that it could be made out of inexpensive materials. But if you want to make yours out of hard maple, go right ahead. And yes, you will need some extra material other than that 2x10 for the jaw. The plane stops can actually be made from the extra material from the 2x10, but I had this extra red oak lying around, so I just made it out of that. The jaw was also made from this scrap red oak that I have, but if you don't have any inch and a half thick material, you can always just take material that's 3 1⁄4 inches thick and take two pieces, laminate them together to get the thickness that you need for the jaw. Something that I forgot to mention in the demo, why there are two plane stops on either end. So the one on this side is for hand planing in that direction. And you might think this one is for hand planing in that direction, but I generally don't use it that way since I'm a righty. So what this is for is that if the bench is facing this way, I can then use it with a belt sander. So the way that the belt sander works, the belt is going that way. So if this was on and I put this on here, the piece would shoot out like that. So if you put this against the stop and then use one of the inline jaw clamps, this piece is not going to go anywhere when you're belt sanding. And there are probably more things that this bench can do that I just didn't show. I think that this is so versatile and I can't wait to use it more. And share more of what it can do. I hope that this was helpful for anybody who's ever asked me to build something like this. Definitely huge thank you to Mike for sharing this idea with me. And definitely go check out Jay Bates's version of this build because he put legs on his that are pretty cool. So huge thank you to Green Chef, Ariatwork and Woodcraft for sponsoring this video. As always, thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you on the next one. And now I'm gonna go warm up.